


Artani

by kerys



Series: Big Damn Verse: Ficlets [1]
Category: Firefly
Genre: Gen, Surgery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-21
Updated: 2013-11-21
Packaged: 2018-01-02 05:34:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1053096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kerys/pseuds/kerys
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A travelling circus's doctor finds a would-be thief in her infirmary, but one of the performers has subdued him already.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Artani

Artani knelt in the floor, wearing gloves of gore as her long fingers worked daintily in the gaping throat of the wide-eyed man that sprawled before her. The white lion lounged behind them, lazily watching the commotion through slitted eyes as he licked idly at the crimson that painted his maw.

Her eyes were bright with adrenaline and a combination of infuriation and satisfaction. The lion-tamer gurgled up at her through his hastily arranged artificial airway and she barked a staccato laugh as she shook her head and continued sewing. “I wouldn’t try to talk if I were you. ‘Specially if you’re thinking on making excuses. Patxi isn’t three feet away and I’d imagine he’s wondering why I’m undoing all his fine work.” She squinted at the mess, hunting for the end of her suture. “If you were asking about sedation… well, you broke a lot of my stock trying to kidnap my friend. I’m sure not wasting any more of it on you.” In reply, he gurgled some more and tried to sit up. She slapped him hard and he dropped back to the floor as his palms slid in the growing puddles of his own blood. The indignation on his face was priceless and she couldn’t help but laugh again.

“Stop that. You’re in shock, or you’d never try such a fool move. Now, I’ve almost got the worst bleeders, but if you want to make it out of here, you’d do well to keep still a spell.” A look of defeat flashed across his face and he closed his eyes. Her own heart stopped in her chest for a long moment, but she could hear his breath hissing through the tube and see the pulse jumping between her fingers, so she tossed springy, navy blue curls out of her eyes, went back to work and continued talking.

“You probably think I cheated you. You’re right. It’s not like tall card is a difficult game to rig; and you know? A man allows himself to be cheated deserves every loss he suffers. Besides, I was doing you a favor. I could see it in your kitten’s eyes. If you’d kept working him _en ferocité_, he was going to kill you. As you can see, I was right. Imagine if you’d been attacked somewhere other than my well-stocked infirmary. I mean, really, how can a _gaje_ _dilo_ like you have such _baxt_? One of your ancestors must have sold one of mine a _very_ fine horse, that fate keeps calling on _me_ to save you.”

She was relieved to realize he had passed out. She clicked her tongue and shook her head and started tugging muscle layers back together with considerably less care than she’d show one of her own. Or a stray dog. All it had to do was hold. She didn’t much care how good it looked or if it hurt to turn his head for the rest of his life. There were few enough ways for him to repay the debts he had incurred today, but at least he would remember them.

“Next time go for a limb. Some cautery, a little amputation, much less trouble. And stop looking so pleased with yourself. You’re a bad cat. If someone else had wandered by before I got home, you’d be dogfood. Bullet in the brainpan. And then what would I have for all my trouble? A gaje _mulo_ haunting me the rest of my days and some sort of dangerous animal citation.”


End file.
